October 26, 2012

I checked to see what pictures I had to post from the past few days, and the only two I had were of food.  Oops. Anyway, BK went to Walmart after scouts the other night to pick up some toothpaste, and he also decided to buy me a card and some dots.  But then I kept giving him all the yellow and green ones, and he wasn't too happy about that, but anyway, it was a nice surprise!

I found this lovely flavor of Blue Bell ice cream the other day, and MAN.  It is SO GOOD.

Yesterday was a fairly peaceful day.  I did the finished touches on the boys' Halloween costumes.  We picked Landon up from preschool.  We came home, and Spence went down for a nap.  Landon went outside to play, and I put on a show for me to watch in the living room.

I found that after a few minutes, I was actually watching Landon out the window than I was the show, so I paused it to watch him for a minute.  He was playing with the basketball hoop and chatting with himself.  And all of the sudden it hit me (for 50 millionth time I'm sure) that someday he is going to grow up and LEAVE me.  A few tears escaped my eyes, I must admit.  My life is so much about him and his younger version, that I just know a time will come when I will look outside my living room window and wish that there was still a chubby-cheeked 4-year-old boy playing outside and chatting with himself.  

It's so cliche, but he seriously was just a newborn baby yesterday, I promise.  The other day Landon was looking through some of my blog books, and he was enamored with looking at baby pictures of himself.  He showed one to me, and it had probably been several months since I had laid my eyes on a newborn Landon picture. 

My heart skipped a beat, and I thought "There's my Landon. This little mewing, cuddly baby.  Who is this grown-up boy looking at his picture??  When did this happen??"

I had a lovely chat with Melanie last night on our way home from our volleyball game.  We were talking about enjoying babies while they're babies.  While I'm excited to someday move past this stage and have my youngest child be Landon's age and take on a new set of stress and problems--I'm also excited to be in the stage that I'm in.  I'm not done yet.  I'll still hopefully get to snuggle another baby or two and watch the whole process start over again. 

Because it just goes way too fast.

As much as I want to encourage my children to find independence and the value of hard work, I still have a very soft and tender place for my little, tiny babies.  The ones that grew inside of me.  The ones I rocked and nursed during the wee hours of the morning.  The ones I smothered with good-smelling lotions and dressed in soft, footed pajamas.  They're so simple and lovely.  And I'll always love babies for that.

But someday those babies grow up, and they learn how to dress themselves and talk and walk and they become so talented and independent.... and they move away.  

I hope I never ever forget all the little details of my babies.